Tuesday, 5 February 2013

World Nutella Day

Happy World Nutella day!

Oh yes, that little jar of
chocolate hazelnut spread has its own day! Do I think it deserves to have its own day?
Well… Why not? Good for Nutella! I’m not an eat-it-out-of-the-jar-with-a-spoon
kinda gal but I do enjoy it on my pancakes or the occasional crumpet (it oozes
into the holes and gets all melty and yummy.)

But in the spirit of being up for
celebrating anything sweet and baking related, I decided I’d take part.

I didn’t have as much time as I
would have liked to bake my little heart out so I decided to bake one, simple
thing. That ended up being Nutella truffles. When searching for Nutella
inspiration, truffles seemed to pop up a lot. I thought they would be quite
faffy but, after finding this recipe by Muddling Along Mummy, I realised they were exactly what I
was looking for.

Muddling Along does justice to her own recipe
on her blog so I won’t pretend I know about the ins-outs of it, all I
know is that the recipe was easy and quick to put together and the end result
tasted delicious.

The middle was creamy and smooth and the hazelnut
flavours from the Nutella really came through. This perfectly balanced the
bitter dark chocolate that also made up the inside, and both these flavours were
in turn balanced by the sweetness of the white chocolate coating. You could
probably use milk or dark chocolate to cover the truffle but I don’t think this
would have worked as well, although if the richness of dark chocolate is to your taste, maybe it would work.

I think I would definitely make
these again; they’d make a great gift on their own or even part of a hamper. And
they took next to no time, apart from the chilling but that just gives you
chance to tidy up...or do something else more interesting! I may have made them slightly too big; truffles are such a decadent thing and don't need to be huge. I also think I will make use for
Nutella more in the future – I do actually really like the taste and I think it
could add a smooth and creamy element to baking.

So my first World Nutella Day was
a success! I’m thinking Nutella brownies for next year…